LCU, spring break 2080

2080, LCU, spring break

Stephanie comes home from spending a weekend with her family, and she is so excited, she can't even contain herself! "The cabin is mine! It's really mine! We should totally go see it!"

Keri agrees, not that Stephanie had given her any real choice, and they inform the guys of their plan. They order their tickets, and pack up some bags, and Justin and Jeremiah say they have a few things to tie up before they go.

Justin unleashes his inner lumberjack! "Ta da," he says.

Keri says, "Is he serious?"

Stephanie laughs and says, "Not being serious is the point." She wonders where they got those shirts and if they come in women's sizes. But they don't come in women's sizes, so she finishes getting ready.

Goodness, not Jeremiah too! Surely Justin put him up to this. Justin says, "Who, me?"

The girls say, "Come on you weirdos! We've got a plane to catch!"

The flight is long, and they arrive in the afternoon. Here is Aunt Abby's cabin, and Stephanie won't call it small, but just cozy, and now it's all hers!

(Rustic Ridge 7 by psychosimmer86 @ MTS2)

Both couples are quick to check out the bedroom situation, because a long flight makes for a lot of pent up energy and unreleased tensions...

Or, you know, a nap is good too.

Then after some freshening up, they get out to see the town...

Justin catches some lunch for tomorrow.

And they indulge in some local chicken pot pies for dinner. Justin wonders if they do sumo wrestling here - Keri says, "Babe, we're in Canada." She can't believe they're letting him into Takemizu Academy next year!!!

They all want to go on a guided tour, but didn't bring enough money, and instead have a game of kicky bag in the rain. And that's a cold rain too, being in Canada and all! No worries though, Keri will have some more money wired from her trust fund in the morning. It sure is fun having rich friends!

They head back to the cabin, to spend the rainy evening near a crackling fire, before anybody catches a cold. And that's when Stephanie breaks the news that she's dropping out of college. They all saw that coming, Stephanie has never been very interested in scholastics... but she doesn't mention yet the second half of her idea.

The cabin is warm and cozy, and the vacation is very relaxing. They all spend long sleepy mornings in bed, staying there well into the afternoons.

(I've seen them cuddle in the mornings before, but awww, he's stroking her hair!).

They're out shopping one afternoon, and Keri wants some new earrings while they're there. Justin notices that she bought silver. Maybe she likes silver? That worries him a little because he bought her something else in gold. Not here, of course, you don't buy those kind of rings in some vacation shop. He bought it before they left.

She says, "What are you grinning at?"

He says, "Oh, nothing." But Keri already knows what Justin is up to, or at least has a pretty good idea. You know, it wasn't exactly discreet the way he sent Stephanie to root through her jewelry box, asking, "You like gold right, do you ever wear gold? What about diamonds, what would you consider small?" Come on, now, why else with the sudden fascination? Stephanie has never been a jewelry kind of girl.

All four of them finally got that tour they wanted, and they choose the logging expedition - they have an awful time, dodging boulders and falling into huge pits of mud. Nothing a little soak in the hot springs can't cure.

***

Justin and Keri are up early the next morning. He says he wants to take her for a hike up in the mountains. She says, "You changed."

"Yeah," he says, "That outfit was just for fun. Come on, you still want to go?" He knows he shouldn't look like a clown when he's about to ask somebody to marry him.

They make it up the mountain, and it's pretty chilly up there, still chilly in Three Lakes everywhere, since it's March. Most normal college students go somewhere warmer for spring break, rather than even colder than it was back home. Justin lights a fire to keep them warm.

Now, how should this go? Maybe they should talk for a while first? Or maybe it's already too obvious? Or maybe he's just nervous? Or maybe she might say no - he never considered that she might say no. She's only nineteen, she might not be ready yet. But she just keeps smiling at him, and he figures she knows, doesn't she? He's just winging this, to be honest. He has no idea what he's doing.

So he just starts talking, fumbling and nervous, and finally makes his way around to asking. "Keri, will you marry me?" And just the second he does, the the sky starts to swirl with fat billowy snowflakes, coating the ground and the trees in white. Talk about atmospheric effects! He couldn't have planned anything better than that!

She says yes, by the way, as if she would say anything else. And they just kind of gaze at each other for about five minutes, the first five minutes of a lifetime of gazing, before they notice how freaking cold it is outside!

They sneak into a nearby hotel hot tub. Keri calls from her cell phone for a cab to take back down the mountain. Neither of them are too prideful to take a cab back down. "No hurry," she tells the cabbie, "Take your time."

Back at the cabin, Stephanie already knows where Justin is taking Keri, and what he is going to ask her there. She also already knows that Keri will 99.5% likely say yes. And she also spilled the beans to Jeremiah. (Jeremiah doesn't tell Stephanie he already knew too.)

But Stephanie has an idea. Her best friends are going abroad and there's nothing exciting left for her at home. "I love it here. I don't think I want to go back."

"What about me? I have work," he says. "I have a job."

"I'm sure there's work here," she says. "We can work in the lumber yard, we'll live off the land."

He says, "But working for the military is what I want to do with my life."

She says, "Staying in Lake County for the rest of my life is not what I want to do with mine."

They're both quiet then, with nothing else to say. Stephanie gets up and washes some dishes. The thing is, those silly lumberjack outfits weren't the only thing the guys planned together for this trip. Jeremiah had a proposal of his own too, but now he just feels kind of deflated. This was not how it was supposed to work out.

By the time Justin and Keri get home again, it's evening. Stephanie hardly gets a word with Justin before he excuses himself to the bedroom, and Keri flashes an engagement ring in front of her face. So it went well, then, Stephanie guesses. She's trying to feel excited, but there's a looming feeling of dread in her heart. "What's wrong?" Keri asks, "And where's Jeremiah?"

"He was tired. He went to bed."

"We're going to bed, too," Keri gloated. "To celebrate, if you know what I mean."

Keri winked and went to join Justin in their bedroom.

Stephanie can't really sleep that night, having nothing in her own heart to celebrate. She stays up spilling her predicament into her diary. Look at this cozy scene! Who would want to go back home to Lake City? She loves it here.

Stephanie doesn't crawl into bed until almost five in the morning, and by that time, Jeremiah isn't really sleeping anymore. She's not mad at him though, and he's not mad at her. He has a lot on his mind too. He's re-formulating his plans, and thinking about what sacrifices need to be made and how he can make this all work out.

By the morning, both Keri and Justin are anxious to head back to school, get back to class, work on their term papers... silly fortune Sims!

Jeremiah and Stephanie don't let the frigid temperatures get in the way of a good workout.

But they're coming to the end of their vacation, and Stephanie wants to show her friends a few more places before they go.

They go to the Three Lakes Plaza and Stephanie and Jeremiah continue their debate over a friendly game of darts. Unfortunately, Stephanie can't be swayed. She spent spent the rest of her tuition money on her portion of the plane ticket, and she knew what she was doing when she did it. But Jeremiah isn't ready to give up yet.

He says, "You really want to stay?

She says, "Yeah, I really do."

He says, "Did you even consider what I would have to give up? You can't just quit the Military - that's like deserting. At the very least, I'll never be allowed back in again. I could get in trouble."

"They won't find you here," she jokes. "I would be forever in your debt."

He says, "I was hoping you'd say that. Would you marry me? Since you're not going home, and since our best friends are right here already, and that guy over there in the black coat is a justice of the peace, and since I already went out and picked up these two little wedding rings... I was hoping... well, what do you think?"

"Wow, you did all of that?" Stephanie glances over to her friends, finding them smiling and unsurprised at what Jeremiah has asked her. The two of them planned it together, didn't they? She could see the twinkle of Keri's diamond on her finger and Justin's arm wrapped around her shoulders, and now Stephanie had a proposal of her own, too. Wouldn't that be a cute life, two couples, best friends forever, taking vacations and traveling. Maybe their children could even grow up together. "Is that all you wanted?"

He takes that as a yes.

And if eloping on spring break is sudden or rash or crazy, then it's really no crazier than deciding to go on vacation and never coming home. They perform the ceremony in front of a fireplace, rather than the dart boards, and Justin takes pictures to take back to her family, who are sure to be shocked at the news!

Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Jeremiah Day!

They commemorate the occasion with a slap dance... well, except for Keri—we suppose she's too good for the slap dance?

The next morning, they're all sitting down to breakfast. The shuttle will come in a couple hours to take Justin and Keri to the airport. Keri says, "Now, I know you guys are broke, so you'll just have to swallow your pride and let us fly you back home for our wedding. It's only fair." They know she doesn't mean to be rude. Keri is just frank like this, she speaks the truth, and it's true, Jeremiah and Stephanie are broke. Dirt poor, living in a cabin in the woods and happy.

The shuttle comes that morning after breakfast, and they all say their goodbyes—for now, not forever. And Jeremiah and Stephanie are left to their tiny, cozy little cabin in the woods. Tiny, but with room enough for two.

***

notes: he wanted to marry her, and she wanted to get engaged to him, so I figured in exchange for giving up his LTW, he was due an equal commitment in return ;)

This isn't like the move-away we did with Marisa and Roland. We will still follow Stephanie and Jeremiah's storyline in Three Lakes, and for as long as they're there, they will get the same 2 days/Sim-years of playtime that everyone else gets.

Stephanie is dropping out of school, but she will remain a YA until she turns 23. Or until I get annoyed at her want panel being clogged up with those college-related wants that she won't be filling - though Stephanie was never very interested in college in the first place (hence her dropping out of school) so it might not be a problem ;)

Gameplay Notes on Living Abroad:Now, they obviously can't really live in Three Lakes - so for gameplay purposes, I have them in a TINY placeholder apartment in Abandia City (so that they don't walk by in any Lake County neighborhoods). I won't bother with the prisoner token in their inventories, because the separate subhood usually does a good enough job of keeping them off my community lots (with the aide of the Visitor Controller and/or Customer Selector), and since they won't have jobs, there won't be anyone bringing them home unexpectedly. The apartment on their own is so that I can send them on this extended vacation without having to hold up any other households while they're there - it's kind of like keeping a mailing address or something ;)

(Their PO BOX - a 3 x 3 apartment, with phone, computer, and bathroom)

I book them the longest vacation, because it costs them airfare to fly there and back, for as long as they want to stay there. If I want them to stay longer, without paying, I can use the sethour cheat to skip over midnight ;)

Any money they spend on flights we will consider their bills, since they won't receive any while living there. And the rent on the tiny box of an apartment (telephone, computer, and bathroom) will be considered rent for a PO Box while they're gone. I'll rent the apartment furnished so that they don't have to spend extra to have the phone and computer - they'll need that so friends and family can contact them. They have a real phone and computer to use in their cabin as well.They won't age while they're there, but I can adjust their ages with the multipainting - I may have to bring Stephanie home before I can age her from YA to adult, and I doubt they'll be able to raise any kind of family there, not at least until their kids are children, which is a long way off, lol! They're only 23 and 20 years old, and being pleasure and popularity, only have a 25% chance of wanting children.

They can't have ordinary jobs, but they can "work in the lumberyard" = digging in the ground for loot, or they can work online using Monique's computer, or write books or restaurant guides from home. They are not able to set up a home business from the cabin - I checked...

(The Lumberyard - basically just a big empty lot they can dig up, and not have to mess up their own yard.)

(Inside - lol @ the poor girl on the toilet!)

(Working hard... the two locals who were digging both found loot. Jeremiah found a map for Takemizu Village, and Stephanie found one for Twikkii Island - wrong places, lol. Maybe he'll FedEx the map to Justin and Keri to use while they're studying next year.)

So, with everything in working order, this will actually work quite similarly to how I send students to Takemizu Academy for a whole school year at a time. There is some imagination involved, but hey, Stephanie and Jeremiah are living in Canada! Yay! :)

The local chicks adore Jeremiah - Steph looks worried, but she doesn't need to be. He's faithful. ;)